Becoming a Teacher of Literacy: The struggle between authoritative discourses

Abstract

This study describes and analyzes the influence of an ideological conflict between a teacher education program and a school district upon one pre‐service teacher's emerging identity as a teacher of literacy. Using poststructural feminism as the theoretical framework and a single case study analysis, the study illustrates how the discourse of the school district's scripted reading program and the discourse of the university's comprehensive literacy positions Claire, the pre‐service teacher. The data analysis demonstrates how being positioned between these two competing and authoritative discourses conflicts with her understanding of reading and reading instruction. Reflecting upon the data, the research becomes a self‐study of the teacher educator/researchers. Four unresolved tensions seek to create spaces of resistance and change.